The ARM Institute Champion program recognizes ARM Institute Members who have gone above and beyond the call of membership to strengthen US manufacturing through robotics, physical AI, and workforce development while advocating for the ARM Institute’s mission! ARM Champions are recognized annually at a celebratory dinner during our Annual Member Meeting, our premier members-only event that convenes representatives from across our member consortium for three days of networking, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration.
This year, we’re starting monthly highlights of our ARM Institute Champions to connect you better to their work, inspire you on how you might be able to take action on further collaboration with us, and help you meet your fellow Members.
This month’s Champion Spotlight features Glenn Saunders from ARM Member Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Get to know Glenn in the interview below!
Can you start by telling us a bit about your work at RPI?
My work at RPI is focused on research in manufacturing, with an emphasis on automation and robotics. I am Research Staff rather than faculty, so I don’t have a faculty appointment with an academic department, but rather a full-time position with a Research Center (The Center for Smart Convergent Manufacturing Systems, CSCMS). My primary responsibility is delivering high-value research results on applied, higher-TRL projects in manufacturing processes and systems. I work very closely with faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, sometimes as PI and sometimes in a supporting role. I’m generally very close to the action on our projects and get to get my hands dirty, which I enjoy. I’m generally involved in multiple projects running in parallel that all involve manufacturing and usually industrial robots, but may be across different industries, materials, processes and sectors. This could range from manufacturing contact lenses to military aircraft and everything in between. For someone who likes to be exposed to a wide range of technical challenges and apply engineering problem-solving skills in new and interesting application spaces, my work at RPI is a great opportunity. The CSCMS is fundamentally structured as an applied research resource with a clear mission of producing not only high-value academic research, but also high-value results for our industrial partners. This places my work much closer to the plant floor than in most academic settings.
How and why did you get involved in the ARM Institute?
I got involved in the ARM Institute from the very beginning, when the original proposal was drafted to stand up the Institute under the then National Network for Manufacturing Innovation program. Through a mutual acquaintance, we were invited to attend early planning meetings when CMU was pulling together a team to respond to the RFP for an Institute focused on Robotics. The “why” is simple and straightforward; at that time we had been operating a very applied, industry-focused, New York based robotics and manufacturing research center for nearly 30 years and there was a lot that we could bring to the table to help stand up an even more impactful organization of national scope. It was very exciting at the time to be a part of something bigger than ourselves that aligned so perfectly with our passion for bringing robotics and automation into domestic manufacturing. It’s quite gratifying now to see what the ARM Institute has become and what it’s accomplished.
You’ve participated in a number of ARM Institute technology projects. Can you tell us about your experience participating in these and how they’re different from non-ARM Institute funded projects?
ARM technology projects are fast-paced with clear deliverables and a strong commercialization focus. Most of my experience has involved a similar structure so ARM projects are not very different from many of my non-ARM funded projects, although generally larger in scope and involving harder problems and more partners. One thing I can say about ARM projects is that the Institute has demonstrated extraordinary flexibility and support during project execution when things don’t go as planned.
What are some outputs from your ARM Institute funded projects that you’re most proud of?
I’m proud of the impact that RPI has been able to have on many of the “big” goals of the Institute such as interoperability, robot agility and robot-human teaming, and on the overall goal of making robotics more accessible, easier to deploy and more cost-effective in manufacturing, to help US companies be more competitive. This is essentially what I had been working on for the bulk of my career at a more local level, and it’s very gratifying to see these same goals pursued at a national level.
Of the fourteen ARM projects that I’ve had the privilege to be a part of, I’m especially proud of our one Education & Workforce Development (EWD) project, our suite of cut-and-sew projects and our suite of multi-robot projects. While we have only been directly involved in one EWD project, I believe that our involvement in some way directly contributed to the creation of the RoboticsCareer.org platform, and I am proud to have been a part of it. Similarly, I’m proud of our technical projects in the apparel industry. Here we’ve been able to directly impact an industry that is in desperate need of automation and modernization. I’m proud of our multi-robot work because we’ve been able to have a measurable impact on a critical aerospace manufacturing process that was not only non-intuitive, but also only possible by applying reinforcement learning. I’m also proud of our approach to multi-robot systems where the agents work collaboratively to carry out complex tasks. These ideas have led to new research well beyond the original scope to include aerospace manufacturing and defense applications.
What advice do you have for newer ARM Members about how they can engage and get the most of their membership?
I definitely advise new members to attend the Annual Member Meeting. That’s the best place to meet potential partners and learn about how the Institute operates, and how best to find the right roles and connections. In the meantime, my suggestion for maximizing the benefits of membership are to be active on the ARM Community where you have access to people and past projects. This is a resource that is only open to Members, and taking full advantage of it is one of the best ways to get the most of your membership. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for, then ask for help; the staff in the Institute is there to help.
2026 will mark the 10th iteration of our Annual Member Meeting, taking place Nov. 17-19 in Pittsburgh as a members-only event. Can you tell us what you look forward to most at this event each year?
What I look forward to most at the Member Meeting is hearing about what all the other members are working on. Most of us want to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and the ARM Institute is clearly a place where a manufacturing/robotics geek can experience that sense of being a part of something that is getting things done, moving the needle and having an impact.
Bonus: What’s on the horizon for RPI this year that you’d like other Members to know about?
Look for an announcement related to a new Robotics Engineering major at RPI soon!
Join Glenn & Thousands of Other Experts in Strengthening US Manufacturing
ARM Institute Members lead the way to a future where people and robots work together to respond to our nation’s greatest challenges and to develop and produce the world’s most desired products. By becoming a member of our nearly 500 member organization consortium, you’ll join thousands of subject matter experts in building the future of US manufacturing through robotics, AI, and workforce innovations. Your membership to our robotics institute unlocks not only access to member-exclusive events and webinars, including our Annual Member Meeting, but also project funding opportunities, project outputs, networking, a digital platform for collaboration, and more.
2026 ARM Institute Member Meeting
Save the date for our 10th Annual Member Meeting taking place Nov. 17-19 in Pittsburgh, PA. Our Annual Member Meeting convenes experts from across our consortium for three days of networking, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration. This event is open only to ARM Members. Stay tuned for registration information or join our consortium to gain access to this unique event.
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ABOUT THE ARM INSTITUTE
The ARM (Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing) Institute is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense/War under Agreement Number W911NF-17-3-0004 and is part of the Manufacturing USA® network. The ARM Institute leverages a unique and robust consortium of nearly 500 member organizations and partners across industry, academia, and government to make robotics, autonomy, and artificial intelligence more accessible to U.S. manufacturers large and small, train and empower the manufacturing workforce, strengthen our economy and global competitiveness, and elevate national security and resilience. Based in Pittsburgh, PA since 2017, the ARM Institute’s mission is to assert the US as the leading nation in manufacturing output through the adoption of robotics and AI. For more information, visit www.arminstitute.org and follow the ARM Institute on LinkedIn and X.